A two-year degree that prepares students with a broad range of political interests for a wide range of professions by providing a toolkit of research, analytical, and managerial skills that can be easily applied across sectors and issue areas.
Our Curriculum
Our Master of Public Policy curriculum is rigorous, interdisciplinary, and practical.
- Policy Analysis: The School is a nationally recognized leader in quantitative policy analysis with a carefully crafted core curriculum in microeconomics, statistics, and quantitative program evaluation.
- Political and Ethical Analysis: core courses provide an in-depth understanding of public policy institutions and political processes, and explore the key role of values and ethics in public policy making.
- Communication: we offer excellent writing instruction and tutoring; modules on public presentation skills, social media, strategic communication, working with the press, data visualization; and more.
- Leadership: core and elective courses focus on key issues in public/nonprofit management and effective leadership. Numerous extracurricular leadership development opportunities are also available, including leadership assessments; workshops; panels; access to top policy makers; executive coaching; and taking leadership positions in student organizations, school committees, and community initiatives.
Core Curriculum Learning Objectives.
Master of Public Policy students will:
- Acquire and demonstrate the analytical skills necessary for successful policy analysis
- Develop a sophisticated understanding of the institutions and processes of public policy (broadly defined to include economic, political, and other)-and the implications they have for policy development and implementation
- develop, practice, and improve communication skills appropriate to the policy field
- develop and improve leadership, management, and decision-making skills
- Demonstrate the ability to integrate analytical, institutional, communication, and management skills
Core coursework.
All students who enroll beginning in the fall and beyond must take the following core courses (24 credits):
Public Policy (3 credits)
Statistics (3 credits)
Microeconomics for Public Policy (3 credits) and one of the following courses:
- Economic Analysis in Public Policy Practice (3 credits)
- Economics of Developing Countries (3 credits)
- Macroeconomics (3 credits)
- Economics and the public sector (3 credits)
Values, Ethics and Public Policy (3 credits)
Performance Management (1.5 credits)
Public Administration (1.5 credits)
Integrated Policy Exercise (1 credit)
Quantitative methods of program evaluation (3 credits)
Negotiation or conflict resolution (1 credit)
10-week summer internship and report (1 credit)
Several core curriculum courses include an increased focus on structural racism/institutional discrimination and the historical and current role of public policy in both addressing and reinforcing/codifying structural racism and social inequalities.
Electives
The school’s electives include courses on the history and future of the country; the economics of developing countries; strategic consulting; the psychology of climate change; smart cities and mobility; reflections on crime, poverty and inequality; the politics of cybersecurity; the economics of education; and more.